VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on Tuesday
announced sweeping changes to the way the Roman Catholic Church
deals with cases of sexual abuse of minors, abolishing the rule
of "pontifical secrecy" that previously covered them.
Advocates for the victims of a sex abuse scandal that has
rocked the church for nearly two decades applauded the move as
being long overdue but said it had to be applied broadly.
Two documents issued by the pope back practices that have
been in place in some countries, particularly the United States,
such as reporting suspicion of sex abuse to civil authorities
where required by law.
The documents, which put the practices into universal Church
law, also forbid imposing an obligation of silence on those who
report sex abuse or allege they have been a victim.
"This is an epochal decision," Archbishop Charles Scicluna
of Malta and the Vatican's most experienced sex abuse
investigator, told Vatican Radio.
The lifting of "pontifical secrecy" in sex abuse
investigations was a key demand by Church leaders, including
Scicluna and German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, at a summit on
sexual abuse held at the Vatican in February.
They argued that secrecy in cases of sexual abuse of minors
was outdated and some Church officials were hiding behind it
instead of cooperating with authorities.
LOWER LEVEL OF CONFIDENTIALITY
The new rules effectively strip internal Church proceedings,
evidence and tribunal decisions of the secrecy protection they
previously enjoyed.
This, victims groups have said, will allow for more
transparency and sharing of information with authorities while
keeping a lower level of confidentiality similar to civil legal
structures.
Marie Collins, who was abused by a priest in her native
Ireland as a girl and resigned in frustration from a papal
commission on abuse because of what she saw as Vatican
resistance, Tweeted that the changes were "Excellent news ... at
last a real and positive change."
Anne Barrett-Doyle, co-director of the U.S. based abuse
documentation group BishopAccountability.org, said the pope had
taken "an overdue and desperately needed step" but that its
impact will be determined by how broadly it is applied.
Scicluna said the new provisions open up ways to
communicate with victims and cooperate with the state.
"Certain jurisdictions would have easily quoted the
pontifical secret ... to say that they could not, and that they
were not, authorized to share information with either state
authorities or the victims," Scicluna said.
"Now that impediment, we might call it that way, has been
lifted, and the pontifical secret is no more an excuse," he
said.
One of the documents also raises to 18 or under from 14 or
under the age that pictures of individuals can be considered
child pornography "for purposes of sexual gratification, by
whatever means or using whatever technology".
Last year, a Vatican court sentenced a Catholic priest to
five years in jail for possessing child pornography while he was
based in the United States as a diplomat.
On Tuesday, the pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop
Luigi Ventura, the Holy See's ambassador to France, who has been
accused of sexual molestation.
The Catholic Church has been hit by scandal involving the
sexual abuse of children by priests around the world in the past
20 years. Francis has vowed zero tolerance for offenders but
victims of abuse want him to do more and make bishops who
allegedly covered up the abuse accountable.